From: Mouwenda, Y.D., et al (2021), “Characterization of T cell responses to co-administered hookworm vaccine candidates Na-GST-1 and Na-APR-1 in healthy adults in Gabon”, PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases 15:10. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0009732 We all know how vaccines work. You take something from the pathogen into your body, triggering your body’s immune response to fight it off. Then, …
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Monkey business: how pinworms shape genetic diversity in howler monkeys
ft. Inconsistent Capitalisation From: “Co-structure analysis and genetic associations reveal insights into pinworms (Trypanoxyuris) and primates (Alouatta palliata) microevolutionary dynamics”, B. Solórzano-García, E. Vázquez-Domínguez, G. Pérez-Ponce de León & D. Piñero, BMC Ecology and Evolution 21:190 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-021-01924-4 One of the most important drivers of evolutionary change is parasitism. Parasitic organisms are by definition detrimental …
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What can a 1700s Ship’s Surgeon tell us about assumptions in Science?
One thing that scientists and historians of science understand instinctively, but I think is underappreciated elsewhere, is that scientists’ assumptions shape not only how we interpret experimental results, but also how we design our experiments. The ways we think about things, what we understand our experimental subjects and variables to be, certain assumptions we make …
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Shell Games: How different Hermit Crabs coexist
From: “Shell resource partitioning as a mechanism of coexistence in two co-occurring terrestrial hermit crab species”, S. Steibl & C. Laforsch (2020), BMC Ecology 20:1 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12898-019-0268-2 A fairly fundamental concept in ecology and evolutionary ecology is the competitive exclusion principle – that complete competitors cannot coexist. That is, a situation in which two species which …
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Why are men taller than women?
From: “Expanding the evolutionary explanations for sex differences in the human skeleton”, H.M. Dunsworth (2020), Evolutionary Anthropology 2020 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1002/evan.21834 All across the world, whatever the average height is in the city or town or country, men tend to be a little taller than women. The traditional explanation for this, repeated to the point of …
Bright Lights, Bold Lizards? How invasive species thrive in urban areas
From: “Urban invaders are not bold risk-takers: a study of three invasive lizards in Southern California”, B.J. Putman, G.B. Pauly, and D.T. Blumstein (2020), Current Zoology zoaa015 https://doi.org/10.1093/cz/zoaa015 Invasive species have become a major headache for conservationists worldwide, causing problems ranging from rats damaging isolated seabird populations by eating their eggs to Japanese knotweed choking …
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Plastic-eating bacteria: coming to a biorecycler near you?
From: “Toward Biorecycling: Isolation of a Soil Bacterium That Grows on a Polyurethane Oligomer and Monomer”, M.J.C. Espinosa, A.C. Blanco, T. Schmidgall, A.K. Atanasoff-Jardjalieff, E. Kappelmeyer, D. Tischler, D.H. Pieper, H.J. Heipieper and C. Eberlein (2020). Frontiers in Microbiology https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2020.00404 Plastic is a problem. We pump oil out of the ground, turn it into something …
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Are bigger doses better? Finding new ways to fight worms
From: “Efficacy of single versus four repeated doses of praziquantel against Schistosoma mansoni infection in school-aged children from Côte d’Ivoire based on Kato-Katz and POC-CCA: An open-label, randomised controlled trial (RePST)”, P.T. Hoekstra, M. Casacuberta-Partal, L. van Lieshout et al (2020), PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0008189 Schistosoma is a parasitic flatworm (more specifically, a trematode …
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Mouse Microbiome Mutations: how mutant E. coli speed up evolution
From “Low mutational load and high mutation rate variation in gut commensal bacteria”, R.S Ramiro, P. Durão, C. Bank, I. Gordo (2020), PLoS Biology 18:3 e3000617 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000617 In recent years, biology has come to understand that the bacteria and microorganisms living inside animal guts are hugely influential in the functioning of the animal, affecting processes …
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The evolutionary reasons why lorikeet parrots have green backs and colourful faces
From: “Macroevolutionary bursts and constraints generate a rainbow in a clade of tropical birds”, J.T. Merwin, G.F. Seeholzer and B.T. Smith (2020), BMC Evolutionary Biology 20:32 Animal colouration is one of the most interesting phenomena in evolutionary biology, since it varies so much between different animals and is influenced by such a wide variety of …
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